Amare’s Return

December 25, 2012

Merry Christmas everyone! I was thinking about great Christmas gifts and I realized what’d be possibly the best one of them all. I’m of course talking about the New York Knicks and Amare’s Stoudemire’s return to the team. He hasn’t played at all this year and, as of right now, his return is imminent. The gift part is dependent on one thing: Will Amare’s return help or hurt the Knicks?

The answer to that question lies in the answer to another: How will Amare fit in to Mike Woodson’s system? I think that Mike Woodson is a smart enough man to be able to incorporate Stoudemire into the game plan. The only requirement is that Amare be accepting of his presumably diminished role. However, based on all the news that’s come out in recent weeks, Amare seems to be not only accepting of this new role, but he seems to be embracing it. He’s already said that he’d accept a sixth man role if, in his words, it would help the team.

I think that the pros of Stoudemire’s return far outweigh the cons. For one, Stoudemire’s return will give the Knicks the thing they have particularly lacked throughout the year—size. Giving the Knicks a bona fide power forward will allow them to detract attention away from Carmelo Anthony, though it isn’t like the extra defensive attention is really affecting Melo’s game. Also, getting Stoudemire back will provide the Knicks with even more inside presence than what they already have. The only con I’m aware of right now is that Amare and Melo are both superstars, which means that they both should be demanding superstar-worthy numbers of touches. Also, the two have never played that well together, but judging from comments made from the Knicks’ training camp during the offseason, it seems that all the kinks have been worked out, which means that the Knicks should be even better than they have been.

Either way, it’ll be incredibly interesting to see what Amare’s return rolls out for the Knicks. Until then, Merry Christmas everyone!